NY Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis) is another native that I planted because of its attractiveness to pollinators. It grows quietly in the back of the moist border with joe-pye and swamp milkweed and then blooms in late July or early August. This aster family relative is said to get its common name from the rusty color of the seedheads. The misty look to this pic is not an artistic touch; my camera fogged up last week when I brought it from the air-conditioned house out into the 100 degree heat to take this pic. I didn’t have the wherewithal to stay out long enough in that heat, so decided I liked the effect.

All of the flowers in my garden have bloomed, save the goldenrods. The joe-pye is tattered and the milkweeds are ripening seedpods.

I’ve been watching these milkweed bugs for a few weeks, waiting for them to get big enough to take a pic. When I first noticed them I thought they were aphids, but with each day they are coming to look more like their adult form. These bugs feed on the tissues and seeds of the milkweed plant, and it’s thought that they congregate in numbers like this to increase the benefit of their warning coloration to possible predators.

I inadvertantly soaked this little baby a few times before I learned to check beneath the geraniums before watering them. He was convinced that he was so small and so brown that I wouldn’t be able to see him under there. Mother Nature’s camouflage at work!

Monarchs are the most numerous butterflies in the garden this year, I’ve only spotted a few swallowtails and not even very many skippers. I spend a little time each day searching for eggs or caterpillars, but still have found none.

Today’s attempt at a decent hummingbird pic. I envy those of you who can manage it. I’m glad to finally be seeing them in the garden, and love to watch them chase one another around! They’ve been visiting the sugar-water feeders, but also the salvias and the little flowering maple trees.

Great Spangled Fritillary on Butterfly Weed at Deep Cut Gardens

“More than any other group of animals, butterflies look as if they were designed in art school… Butterflies are two pairs of wings flapping about in broad daylight. They don’t have teeth or claws. They can’t fly very fast. Their abdomens make for a quick snack. Art is their defense.” – from An Obsession with Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair with a Singular Insect by Sharman Apt Russell

My PetBunny friend Michelle, has been sharing *then and now* pics of her family on her blog and it got me thinking and made me dig out my scrapbooks. I’ve got gazillions of photos that for years I’ve been trying to organize and scrapbooking is a fun way to do it. I started scrapbooking when my husband and I were first married and have only gotten up to 1995 or so (all of two years’ worth). Every year I get more behind. I haven’t done a single scrapbook page since I started this blog.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to share some *then and now* pics of our little house. I have plenty of *nowish* pics, like this one above from 1995, but very few *then* pics. The house we live in was built by my husband’s grandfather and uncle in the 50’s. I have only one very large black-and-white photo that is too large to scan, but shows the orchard that used to border our property and the now busy road out front is just dirt. The pic at right is my husband’s aunt and uncle during construction. They lived here for 40 some years before my husband and I. We haven’t changed much at all in our years here, other than cosmetic changes to make the place feel like our own. My husband grew up playing here as a child and having Thanksgiving Dinner with his family here, and in his aunt’s later years after his uncle passed away took care of the lawn and anythiing his aunt needed. People who have lived in the neighborhood for years often comment on how much my husband resembles his uncle.

In the meandering sort of way my mind works, the photo of my husband’s aunt and uncle brought to mind this pic of my mom and brother standing on the lot that was to become the house I grew up in. My parents moved here *to the shore*, as they called it, from Jersey City in the 50’s. My dad told me how they used to drive down the Parkway on weekends to check on the home’s progress. Our development was also surrounded by farms and orchards in the 50’s – no more; it’s nothing but highways and strip malls now. My childhood home was sold last year after my dad passed away and I drive by whenever I’m in the neighborhood. It’s really very strange to see the place that I have thought of as *home* for so many years belonging to someone else. I am glad, though, to see children’s toys in the driveway and a sense of newness to the place where I grew up. Makes me wonder what my husband’s aunt and uncle would think of all we’ve done here to make this place our home.

The master gardeners have been getting some good press here lately. This story appeared in today’s paper and describes how this year’s class has been donating all of the produce raised in their garden to the local food pantry as part of the Plant a Row for the Hungry program.

Unfortunately I’ve not been able to participate due to my work schedule (it’s that way for me with most of the really neat things the MG’s do), but I’ve been ogling the garden since June on my lunch breaks – it’s located in back of the building I work in. So far they’ve raised and donated more than 500 pounds of produce. Wow! Way to go.

I’ve been casually collecting decoys for the last year or two; I especially like shorebird decoys. My favorite of this little group is the American Avocet. I bought it last year when my husband and I went to the Ocean County Decoy and Gunning Show at the Tuckerton Seaport. The seaport is a great place to visit if you’re interested in the maritime history of the Jersey Shore, specifically the Barnegat Bay region. The show features local artists and carvers and has some fun contests like duck and goose calling, decoy rigs, whittling, and model sneakboxes. There’s also usually retriever contests and lots of Lab puppies running around. I’m already looking forward to this year’s show on September 24th and 25th.

Today’s great accomplishment was cleaning off my desk so that I could take a pic and show off my decoys. You can see the rest of my little collection along the top of the bookshelf. What a project! I’m amazed at the way things pile up around here in just one month’s time, despite my being good about throwing stuff away. So now I’ve got a clean dust-free desk and lots of surface space to pile more stuff on. All the important papers have been filed away never to be seen again. Someday I’ll learn to be organized.

Should you not have the chance to travel to Naples to see Mount Vesuvius you could settle for this miniature replica in the rockery at Deep Cut Gardens. At one time this thing actually spewed smoke – crime boss Vito Genovese once owned the property, which he fashioned after an Italian estate, and hired Italian workers to build hillside rock gardens on the steep slope behind the renovated farmhouse.

The Sargent’s weeping hemlocks are the jewels of the rockery. They are impressively sized and form a shady green canopy over the cascading pools set into the hillside. These pools were dry and quiet for years, but have recently been refurbished, bringing a delightful cooling effect to this area of the park. On the day that I visited it was more than 90 degrees, but cool enough in the shade of the hemlocks. The gardens here are planted with many of the ericaceous species one expects to find in a rockery, and recently the pool borders have been planted with a variety of ferns and other moisture lovers. The small waterfalls were very popular with birds like the robin that I photographed, as well as goldfinches and chipping sparrows that seemed to have a nest at the bottom of the hillside garden.

The shade of the hemlocks leads down the hillside and into the blazing sun of the parterre, which is finally a work in progress. It looks like park staff is beginning to lay down the outlines of what will be a colorful perennial and rose display garden. At the end of the parterre you can just make out the vine-covered pergola. I met an older gentleman on the day of my visit who told me that he comes to the park and practices his tango steps beneath the pergola! He says it is quiet and cool and like a whole other world there. Farther in the distance is the meadow and pond, beneath which lies the swimming pool that Genovese had built. I’ll share those pics on another day.

I also blogged about Deep Cut Gardens on 7/24/06.

Too many of my container plants look like this one. The heat of the last week has been too much for them, despite my morning and evening watering routine. I’m embarassed even to post a photo of the pot of nasturtiums that was so pretty a month ago; it has long since given up the ghost. The geraniums are happy, though. So are the flowering maple trees and the angel trumpets. Anything in a small pot is toast.

This heatwave is supposed to break tonight with a *cold front* moving through from the west. Forecasts for tomorrow promise highs in the upper 80’s, rather than the 100 degree temps we’ve had since Tuesday. Hopefully the humidity will go down; the heat index the last few days was between 110 and 115 degrees! Entirely too hot for the likes of me. I feel like I’m living in a cave, with the shades drawn and all the windows closed to keep the heat out. I’ve even been working in the near dark at my job – we’ve had all non-essential lights and appliances off for the last few days in an effort to conserve energy. Ridiculous considering that the AC keeps the building so cold that I have to sit at my desk with a blanket over my shoulders. Today I decided to do a little energy conserving of my own and took the afternoon off and came home and went to sleep, in hopes of gettiing rid of the headache I’ve had for the last 3 days.

The promised thunderstorms haven’t come yet. While I was out watering this evening and adding some frigid well water to the pond (the fish haven’t boiled yet – what were we thinking putting that pond in full sun?) there were some distant rumblings of thunder and a light hot breeze, but that’s it so far. I’m hoping for a spectacular thunderstorm with drenching rain. I want to be able to turn off the AC, open the windows, and fall asleep listening to the katydids and crickets.